Language and Occupation

Question 1

John Swales (2011)

Answer 1

defines a discourse community as having members who share common goals, communicate internally, use specialist lexis and discourse and possess a required level of knowledge that makes them ‘eligible’ to participate in community

Question 2

Drew and Heritage (1993)

Answer 2

• members of a discourse community share inferential frameworks with each other
• strong hierarchies of power within organisations, many asymmetrical relationships evident through language use

Question 3

Searle’s Speech Act Theory

Answer 3

each time we speak, we convey 3 types of meaning:

• locution - literal words said
• illocution - implied meaning behind the utterance
• perlocution - performance as a result of the utterance

Question 4

Grice’s Maxims

Answer 4

4 criteria which must not be broken:

• quality - truthful and accurate information
• quantity - suitable amount of detail for the context
• relevance - response that is linked to the prompt
• manner - be clear and avoid ambiguity

Question 5

Giles’ Accommodation Theory

Answer 5

• code-switching - swapping from one type of language to another for a specific purpose
• convergence - making your language more similar to a person/group
  divergence - making your language more markedly different to a person/group

Question 6

Brown and Levinson’s Politeness Theory

Answer 6

• a person’s face is the way they present themselves
• positive face - a desire to be liked and approved
• negative face - a desire not to be imposed upon
• a face threatening act threatens these things in some way (eg. criticism)
• a face saving act uses a strategy to avoid threatening someone’s face

Question 7

Koester

Answer 7

how employees interact within the workplace

• found banter is needed as it calms atmosphere and makes customers feel comfortable and welcome
• small-talk is important as workers need to establish relationships that aren’t just work-based